Sotheby's NY / Global Participation Propels Impressionist+Modern Evening Sale to $230 Million
Participation from 35 Countries Propels
Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale
To a Strong $230 Million Total
WORKS FROM THE COLLECTION OF ALEX & ELISABETH LEWYT
ACHIEVE $88.6 MILLION
LÉGER PAINTING FROM THE COLLECTION OF MADONNA
SELLS FOR $7.2 MILLION
TO BENEFIT HER RAY OF LIGHT FOUNDATION
NEW YORK, 7 May 2013 – Exceptional works from prominent estate collections drove Sotheby’s Evening sale of Impressionist & Modern Art in New York to a strong total of $230,040,000, nearing its pre-sale high estimate of $235.1 million*. Both the sale total and the sell-through rate of 84.5% rank among Sotheby’s highest in this category in recent years, worldwide.
Simon Shaw, Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art department in New York, commented: “Tonight’s results affirm the vibrancy of the truly global market for Impressionist and Modern art. We had the privilege of offering an extraordinary group of works from estate collections, which attracted collectors with remarkably consistency across media, styles and periods. We saw a great deal of activity in the room, on the phones and online, with bidders from 35 countries participating – this includes the greatest participation from Latin America and Asia that we have ever witnessed in an evening sale of Impressionist and Modern art at Sotheby’s.”
David Norman, Chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art department, said:“People always ask what area of the market is currently in fashion – whether it is sculpture, or works on paper, or late Picasso, etcetera. What tonight’s sale demonstrated is that quality is always in fashion. This was evident across a wide variety of pieces: the stunning Daumier work on paper from the 1860s that sold for a record $2.6 million; a classic Impressionist landscape by Monet that sold for $8.6 million; an exquisite Cézanne still life from the Lewyt Collection that sold for $41.6 million; Madonna’s 1921 Leger that brought $7.2 million; and a 1969 Picasso from the estate of Milton Ginsburg that surpassed its estimate to sell for $9.7 million.”
The Evening sale opened with a selection of works from the Collection of Alex & Elisabeth Lewyt, which totaled an impressive $88.6 million – in excess of their $84.7 million high estimate. The group was led by Paul Cézanne’s Les pommes from 1889-90, which topped the auction with $41,605,000 (est. $25/35 million). Multiple bidders competed for the piece, as well as for Amedeo Modigliani’s famed portrait L’Amazon, which drove that picture to $25,925,000 (est. $20/30 million). Tomorrow’s Day sale will offer nearly 100 additional works from the Lewyt Collection. In total, tonight’s sale offered 28 works from noted estate collections, including those of Milton Ginsburg and Veronique and Gregory Peck – together these pieces represented nearly 40% of the works auctioned.
Sculpture proved in demand throughout the evening: all but one of the 12 examples on offer found buyers, together totaling $39.1 million. The selection was led by an exceptional lifetime cast of Auguste Rodin’s Le Penseur from his masterpiece The Gates of Hell, which sold for $15,285,000 after a prolonged battle in the room (est. $8/12 million). This represents the highest price ever paid at auction for a cast of this iconic figure, surpassing the example that sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2010 for nearly $12 million. Also leading the sculpture on offer was Pablo Picasso’s sculpture of his young muse Sylvette, which sold for $13,605,000 (est. $12/18 million).
Paysage à La Ciotat, a rare example of Georges Braque’s Fauvist works, set a new auction record for the artist when it sold for $15,845,000 after a battle among bidders. The work demonstrates the exceptional performance of top-quality Impressionist and Modern works over the last decade: the work sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2000 for $3 million, and today achieved a price more than five times that figure.
A remarkable seven works on paper sold for more than $1 million tonight, together achieving $23.2 million. These results include a new auction record for a work on paper by Marc Chagall, whose Animal dans les fleurs from the Lewyt Collection brought $4,757,000 above a high estimate of $1.5 million, and a new record for any work by Daumier with his work on paper Les Avocats that achieved $2.6 million.
Sotheby’s was honored to offer Fernand Léger’s Trois femmes à la table rouge from the collection of legendary entertainer Madonna – the work exceeded its high estimate in selling for $7,165,000 (est. $5/7 million). Proceeds from the work will benefit Madonna’s Ray of Light Foundation, supporting girls’ education projects in the Middle East and South Asia.
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Sotheby’s has been uniting collectors with world-class works of art since 1744. Sotheby’s became the first international auction house when it expanded from London to New York (1955), the first to conduct sales in Hong Kong (1973) and France (2001), and the firstinternational fine art auction house in China (2012). Today, Sotheby’s presents auctions in eight different salesrooms, including New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris, and Sotheby’sBidNow program allows visitors to view all auctions live online and place bids in real-time from anywhere in the world. Sotheby’s offers collectors the resources of Sotheby’s Financial Services, the world’s only full-service art financing company, as well as private saleopportunities in more than 70 categories, including S|2, the gallery arm of Sotheby’s Contemporary Art department, as well as Sotheby’s Diamonds and Sotheby’s Wine.Sotheby’s has a global network of 90 offices in 40 countries and is the oldest company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (BID).
*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium and prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer’s premium.
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